A concert celebrating Patrick Pearse’s work in the theatre will include music that hasn’t been performed since the Irish rebel and writer’s plays were first produced over one hundred years ago.

Although Pearse himself was reputedly ‘tone deaf’, his love of music was central to his theatric work and this  event will feature the music and song from the plays and pageants he produced in the years preceding the Easter Rising. Entitled Caithréim or ‘Tale of Triumph’, the concert will include performances of work composed especially for Pearse’s dramas by his colleague Tomás Mac Domhnaill.

The concert will also feature the songs and rhymes Pearse learnt on his frequent visits to Conamara, and a seldom-heard version of ‘Gráinne Mhaol’. Cathréím will take place in St Patrick’s College, Drumcondra on the 29 November as part of the two-day symposium, ‘Pearse and the Theatre’.

According to the curator of ‘Caithréim’, musician and academic Síle Denvir, the performances will bring to life some of the music and song associated with Pearse’s plays ‘by presenting the works in a new light’. Pearse himself was not known for his musical talent, says Denvir. ‘Even though Pearse himself was reputedly tone deaf, he obviously had a deep appreciation of music and song, so much so that he gave music a central part in his theatrical productions.’

Denvir believes that Pearse would have approved of the performances. ‘I imagine that Pearse would have approved of the instrumentation in particular, as the harp and uileann pipes feature strongly alongside the vocals, fiddles and concertina. It is often overlooked, but Pearse had a very modern sensibility when it came to the arts, and I think he would also have enjoyed our multimedia presentation which adds a visual dimension to the performance.’